He may have been runner-up on Australian Idol but Anthony Callea is a real winner in the music industry. We caught up with the talented 22-year-old and his charming ways (and beautiful eyes) made us realise why so many are falling victim to Anthony fever.

What�s life been like since Idol � a bit of a whirlwind?

I�m loving it, I�m just enjoying it so much. The last month has been full on and now this month is quite full on with both the releases of the single and the album, so yeah, it�s full on.

Are you living your dream?

Yeah, this is what I�ve always wanted to do and it�s very exciting at times. You get to meet so many different people and go to so many different events and you sometimes have to pinch yourself and go why am I here, it doesn�t make sense.

Did you always want to be a singer, from as early as you can remember?

It�s what I�ve always wanted to do and I said to myself a few years ago if I�m a nobody by 30 then I have to go back to uni so my aim was to be a somebody before the age of 30.

Well, you�re a somebody now with eight years to spare!

Yeah I�m happy.

What were you studying at uni?

I started business management at uni, but I don�t think I�ll be going back to that for awhile. I had an interest in it and I did a Certifcate IV in it and then I decided to go to uni and do it. But I didn�t do it for that long because I wanted to concentrate on singing.

Are your family behind you one hundred per cent, because wanting to be a singer isn�t like saying you want to be a policeman or a school teacher.

They�re very supportive, they�ve always said just do what you�ve got to do, just do whatever makes you happy and if that�s what you want to do then go for it. Music is not one of those jobs which is stable, it�s not a stable job at all and things can happen and it can be over like that but you have to take risks sometimes.

Do you really worry about the possibility of it all ending?

I don�t let that into my head at all and just make sure I give it 110% and you know at the end of the day if it doesn�t work out then at least I know that I can say well I�ve got no regrets and I gave it all I had.

Was Idol the big kick you needed to get really serious?

Seeing the success that came out of the first Idol with Guy and Shannon and a few of the others like Cosima and Paulini and Rob you know, I just thought I would have been stupid not to do it. I was still a bit hesitant at the start but I�m glad I went through with it all.

What was it like back in the beginning of the series?

When I first auditioned (giggles) I didn�t sleep for 36 hours because I came from a gig and it was absolutely freezing and it was raining and by the time I got in, I hadn�t slept for 36 hours. And I was just like �What am I doing? Do I really want to be here?� But I�m glad that I did it and got to where I did in the show. It taught me a lot. You�re chucked in the deep end all of a sudden and you have to grow up really quickly.

Was it also hard because you also had to live away from your family?

I don�t have a problem with living away from home at all, I don�t really get homesick but living in a house with all those other people and going through the same thing it sometimes did your head in. I�m the sort of person who likes to have my own space a lot of the time and especially in a competition like that you have to really stay focused and concentrate on what you have to do and there�s so much going on around you. I was lucky in one way because initially I was sharing a room with Dan and then he left in the second week so I had the whole room to myself so at least for the most part I had a space where I could just go and chill out by myself.

Given that you like your own space, how are you finding it now with schedules that tell you where you have to be at certain times?

I actually don�t mind it because there�s people telling what I have to do and what�s next and what�s coming up in the next hour and stuff like that so it�s good. I just tag along and do what I have to do.

It must get full on though � how do you keep going?

Vitamins, juices and try to eat well.

How much time are you spending commuting from Sydney to Melbourne and would you consider moving here?

Sydney�s like my second home at the moment. I would consider moving if I had to but I�d like to stay based in Melbourne for awhile.

Where would you move to in Sydney though if you had to?

I love the Northern Beaches, I just love it there, it�s like your own little world up there. It�s not too far from the city and there�s nice beaches up there.

How hard was it to release another single after The Prayer?

The success that The Prayer received and the support out there has been overwhelming but I don�t think I could ever expect that again because The Prayer sort of captured a moment from the show that people can relate to. If the second single and so forth goes half as well as that I�d be very pleased. The amount of support I have received in the past few months has just been so overwhelming and I�m so excited to have my album coming out. At the same time I�m also nervous, because it�s like putting a part of you out there and it�s all finished now so I can do nothing about it. It�s not like I can go �oh I wanna fix this part of it�, it�s all done.

Are you thinking about album number two yet?

At this stage I haven�t really thought about that. I just want to concentrate on this album and try and make this work as well as possible. I�m getting out and doing some shows in the next few months so I have to work out what I�m doing with that.

Whose decision was it to release Rain as the follow up?

That�s the song that I wanted to release so we sat down with the team at Sony BMG and my management team. I like to listen to what other people have to say - there�s no use me saying this is what I want to do and that�s the way it is. You always have to go with your gut feeling at the end of the day but I love to sit there and listen to other people�s opinions and go �okay, well what�s going to work for me�. I really, really wanted to release Rain and I thought it would be a good idea, so hopefully it goes well.

And what about the clip � was the creative idea behind that your own?

What happens usually is you put it out there that you�re doing a clip and when you need to do it, all these companies write back with their ideas and the one that sort of appeals to you most you go with that .

There�s a lot of rain in the clip � but you don�t get wet. How come?

It was so funny because when we got there the girl in the clip was like �how come your not in the rain?� and I said �I don�t do the rain!�

What to you do on the rare occasion that you get time off?

When I have time off the first thing I do is ring up friends and say we have to catch up so I try and spend as much time as I can with family and friends but a lot of the time when I have time off when I�m in Melbourne, all I want to do is sleep. I don�t get much sleep these days.

So it�s important to you to find the balance?

There has to be a balance you can�t just work, work, work, otherwise you�d go insane.

You�ve got a big voice for your size � where does it come from?

Oh, I try! I think it�s just growing up in a big wog Italian family and just always yelling! You always have to yell across the top of people to get your point across.

How sad to look average on Logies night. Those who chose subtle over bombshell fashion faded like wallflowers in Crown's white carpet while all around them necklines plunged, thigh splits parted and laced corsets defined Hollywood waistlines.

Baby-faced Home and Away star Isabel Lucas was "Best in Show" among the mostly modest under-20s in a gold satin goddess gown and with tangled tendrils of white hair caught in a halo circlet of diamonds.

Tahyna Tozzi, soon to appear in the ABC drama Blue Water High, was as glorious, lavishly strapless in coffee and green satin by Sydney label Miramandic.

Asked to pause a moment, she straightened, smiled regally and thrust a perfectly tanned leg out of a crotch-high split in her heavy silk skirt. Such class!

Which could not be said of the many blokes who persisted with that most peculiar of Logie night traditions, defining "black tie" as, in fact, a tie-less lounge suit combo with unbuttoned slack-collared cotton shirt.

In their defence, they made the blokes who did bother - such as Australian Idol runner-up Anthony Callea in zipped black Versace, Lleyton Hewitt in dark hand-finished Calibre and Ian Thorpe in striped silk swelling over those amazing biceps -look absolutely smashing

Even the perpetually daggy John Wood smartened up for this one, in a chalk-striped double-breasted. Never mind his blue shirt and odd bow tie. Call it sartorial exuberance, which affected more women than blokes. They hoped double-sided tape and missing frock bits would render their frocks "sexy". "Tacky", unfortunately, won out for so many in the end.